The boardroom was as brutally spotless as ever, except for the few poisonous snowflakes that leaked haphazardly from an ashtray cut into the shape of the Shinra coat of arms and full to bursting with crushed stubs. The walls were panelled with hidden closets set in maple wood, and stylised paintings of the Shinra patriarchs. Perhaps being seen in that admirable light absolves them of everything they did to the contrary in life. If you are remembered, even in death you are not truly extinguished. There was a picture of Gast here, with his arm around a woman's waist. Ifalna, I think her name was. Hojo trashed it, of course. No-one to remember them, or likewise prolong their afterlife. I am amazed by the wealth of totally useless data I can't seem to obliterate from my memory. Ifalna's expression, for one. Trusting and fearful. Comfortable and yet somehow apprehensive. Gast told me I held that self same look in my eyes as a child.
I wonder how many of these elite were born from the Professor's noble exploitation of nature, a dozen outcast souls haunt each face, and fingerprints not their own adorn the grips of all their weapons. Only four people may call themselves the Knights of Neo-Midgar, denizens and protectors of a city not yet built, a conceptual utopia under heavy guard even before its birth. The man is my height and of lithe build, a pair of Mideel-made sais holstered at his hips. The women are identical, behaving with calculated grace and unfathomable speed. If one made a movement, no matter how small, the other would complete it for her, silent and precise with no energy wasted. Both had ice-blond braids scraped tightly away from widow's peaks and ending somewhere around their knees, fine-boned faces showing no trace of their thoughts. Their weapons seemed to be each other, as much as the Remington Riot shotguns slung low across their backs. My EMR is invisible beneath my jacket, along with my beloved 1911.
Four pairs of ardent Mako eyes within close proximity of each other is a dangerous proposition. A natural pair flickered for awhile in the doorway, alight with satisfaction in the knowledge that all who were conscripted had come. Reeve took his place as head of this strange gathering, bidding his audience sit also. I smiled, for myself alone, thinking idly that any one of us could end him in a second, but that the fight to the death between our unlikely quartet would not be so easily resolved. I knew Reeve well enough not to expect a greeting.
"You are, at present, the only members of a highly classified order of assassins who have of late been assigned to dispose of those whom we consider a threat to our objective". He actually paused for breath. We looked at each other for a long second.
"The Knights of Neo-Midgar", My commandant may not even know the meaning of his words, or where they could take us.
"James Zoar. Reno Sinclair. Endorr and Elorath Coburg", our names passed over us like a death sentence, followed by Reeve's gaze, exempt from judgement if only in this room.
"You were being honed for one purpose, and your efficiency in completing your missions has so far been commendable". I gave an amused snort and Zoar grinned. The twins turned away from me in remarkable unison, unwilling to be associated with my self-righteous dislike of authority. Reeve coughed politely, his eyes directing mine down. I immediately adopted a studious expression and sat as I had been taught at the Academy. The tip of his shoe was very close to my crotch.
"As I was saying, you are all proficient killers, assets to our organisation. The assignment I shall give you here today is of the utmost confidentiality. Refuse it if you wish, but leave Midgar tonight and forget what you have heard. Those who accept this mission will be paid well enough never to work again, and of course, there is the matter of any answers you may be seeking."
True silence is a rare phenomenon, and I was not about to break it, unwillingly rapt, begging the nothingness between myself and my superior to bleed the truth from him. He knows, he has to. He is old enough to have known Gast. The dreams, the unearthly glow in my eyes and my inhuman strength, gifts of military science. But their beginning, that thing, Jenova….
"We have had reports of a being which is commanding humans to incite genocide, on a scale small enough to pass for mass murder. In short, ladies and gentlemen, an immensely powerful organism is killing people indiscriminately, using people as its slaves".
Jenova. Jenov…Je.. I couldn't marshal my thoughts in the realm of anything like sanity for an immeasurably long time, and I was not alone in that respect. The Shinra, the most powerful organisation on this withered Planet, has confirmed for me what Zach said. Jenova is killing again, spurring its marionettes to murder from wherever it lies. It was as if I had opened a door to the something that makes schizophrenics shiver and children sleep with the lights on. When I shut my eyes I saw blood. Slowly, grating against my vehement pleas for it to end, the blood formed figures on the ground, licking up walls and spattered on discarded blades. There had to be thirty of them, if not more.
"Your assignment, should you live long enough, is to find that being-", Reeve had virtually dismissed his former etiquette, now speaking hurriedly, urgently, his rakish form gesturing in punctuation and his skin visibly heated, "And bring it to the science division, in whatever condition you find it. If you take this mission, further details will be sent to you accordingly".
He searched for his composure among the tattered scraps of decency that had fallen, cowering, to the floor when first he began to state his intent. The Coburgs paid myself and Zoar a passing glance before murmuring some form of agreement toward Reeve and leaving with as much décor and harmony as they had come. The three who stayed sat only long enough to realise we shouldn't. Voices from my dreams blew past my eyes on a decaying wind, spirited away by an evanescent glimpse of truth. All these voices, these intermittent bursts of salvation and hellfire, formed of the same source. You….all this time it has been….
"I'll do it".
I wonder how many of these elite were born from the Professor's noble exploitation of nature, a dozen outcast souls haunt each face, and fingerprints not their own adorn the grips of all their weapons. Only four people may call themselves the Knights of Neo-Midgar, denizens and protectors of a city not yet built, a conceptual utopia under heavy guard even before its birth. The man is my height and of lithe build, a pair of Mideel-made sais holstered at his hips. The women are identical, behaving with calculated grace and unfathomable speed. If one made a movement, no matter how small, the other would complete it for her, silent and precise with no energy wasted. Both had ice-blond braids scraped tightly away from widow's peaks and ending somewhere around their knees, fine-boned faces showing no trace of their thoughts. Their weapons seemed to be each other, as much as the Remington Riot shotguns slung low across their backs. My EMR is invisible beneath my jacket, along with my beloved 1911.
Four pairs of ardent Mako eyes within close proximity of each other is a dangerous proposition. A natural pair flickered for awhile in the doorway, alight with satisfaction in the knowledge that all who were conscripted had come. Reeve took his place as head of this strange gathering, bidding his audience sit also. I smiled, for myself alone, thinking idly that any one of us could end him in a second, but that the fight to the death between our unlikely quartet would not be so easily resolved. I knew Reeve well enough not to expect a greeting.
"You are, at present, the only members of a highly classified order of assassins who have of late been assigned to dispose of those whom we consider a threat to our objective". He actually paused for breath. We looked at each other for a long second.
"The Knights of Neo-Midgar", My commandant may not even know the meaning of his words, or where they could take us.
"James Zoar. Reno Sinclair. Endorr and Elorath Coburg", our names passed over us like a death sentence, followed by Reeve's gaze, exempt from judgement if only in this room.
"You were being honed for one purpose, and your efficiency in completing your missions has so far been commendable". I gave an amused snort and Zoar grinned. The twins turned away from me in remarkable unison, unwilling to be associated with my self-righteous dislike of authority. Reeve coughed politely, his eyes directing mine down. I immediately adopted a studious expression and sat as I had been taught at the Academy. The tip of his shoe was very close to my crotch.
"As I was saying, you are all proficient killers, assets to our organisation. The assignment I shall give you here today is of the utmost confidentiality. Refuse it if you wish, but leave Midgar tonight and forget what you have heard. Those who accept this mission will be paid well enough never to work again, and of course, there is the matter of any answers you may be seeking."
True silence is a rare phenomenon, and I was not about to break it, unwillingly rapt, begging the nothingness between myself and my superior to bleed the truth from him. He knows, he has to. He is old enough to have known Gast. The dreams, the unearthly glow in my eyes and my inhuman strength, gifts of military science. But their beginning, that thing, Jenova….
"We have had reports of a being which is commanding humans to incite genocide, on a scale small enough to pass for mass murder. In short, ladies and gentlemen, an immensely powerful organism is killing people indiscriminately, using people as its slaves".
Jenova. Jenov…Je.. I couldn't marshal my thoughts in the realm of anything like sanity for an immeasurably long time, and I was not alone in that respect. The Shinra, the most powerful organisation on this withered Planet, has confirmed for me what Zach said. Jenova is killing again, spurring its marionettes to murder from wherever it lies. It was as if I had opened a door to the something that makes schizophrenics shiver and children sleep with the lights on. When I shut my eyes I saw blood. Slowly, grating against my vehement pleas for it to end, the blood formed figures on the ground, licking up walls and spattered on discarded blades. There had to be thirty of them, if not more.
"Your assignment, should you live long enough, is to find that being-", Reeve had virtually dismissed his former etiquette, now speaking hurriedly, urgently, his rakish form gesturing in punctuation and his skin visibly heated, "And bring it to the science division, in whatever condition you find it. If you take this mission, further details will be sent to you accordingly".
He searched for his composure among the tattered scraps of decency that had fallen, cowering, to the floor when first he began to state his intent. The Coburgs paid myself and Zoar a passing glance before murmuring some form of agreement toward Reeve and leaving with as much décor and harmony as they had come. The three who stayed sat only long enough to realise we shouldn't. Voices from my dreams blew past my eyes on a decaying wind, spirited away by an evanescent glimpse of truth. All these voices, these intermittent bursts of salvation and hellfire, formed of the same source. You….all this time it has been….
"I'll do it".